Create Your Own Magic With These Three Steps

Staff - May 4, 2018

Have you ever done something difficult at work, but made it look easy? Maybe you solved a problem, helped a client or negotiated a deal in a way that astounded your colleagues? It felt amazing, right? Inspiring delight and wonder is powerful—even addicting. It's this sense of awe and power that also drives magicians to do what they do, and why people love them for it.

What most people don't realize about magic shows, though, is that it's not all props and performance. To truly surprise and delight, a seasoned magician uses his expertise. And you don't have to run away with the circus or even learn a single magic trick to apply magical thinking to your business or career.

In this issue of Promotional Consultant Today, we reveal three secrets for creating the wow factor at work developed by Kostya Kimlat, a magician with more than 20 years of experience .

1. Innovation And Lateral Thinking. Magicians have always had to work backwards: They come up with a surprising effect and then devise a means to accomplish it. They must consider all mental, visual and physical tools available. To continue astonishing people, a magician can't stick with the same tactics. Their tricks must constantly evolve, but here's the key—their approach to developing new material stays the same: Magicians start the creative process by acting as if anything is possible.

To be creative and innovative, you have to be able to see existing resources as more than they are. You must seek methods and technologies unknown to you (and maybe to others). You can't do any of those things when you decide preemptively that any end goal—a new product, service, client or corporate structure—is outside the range of what's possible.

2. Perception management. No magician's trick is complete with only physical tools and technologies. To fool someone, a magician must do something the other person doesn't know, recognize or perceive. Knowing and managing an audience's perceptions are what make the trick.

Similarly, to excel at work, it's not enough to just be creative. You must also accurately understand what people around you perceive—what they believe and expect. Before an important meeting with a client, your boss or employees, do some digging on what your investors believe about your company before you present. Find out what delighted or disappointed them at the most recent board meeting—and why. Do the research beforehand to more deeply understand what others believe they know, how they see you and what they are looking for, and you'll be able to deliver and even dazzle by going beyond expectations.

3. Social Intelligence. Highly successful magicians aren't just good at tricks. They're great entertainers. They pull people in. Why? They read people in a way that others don't. Perception management—the ability to understand how people perceive you and what you do—is a skill that can be learned, developed and refined. If you practice taking the perspectives of others enough, you'll develop a powerful tool: social intelligence.

Being a great thinker doesn't just mean having great ideas; it's understanding and anticipating the thoughts of others. It's knowing how they think and feel, and making informed guesses on how they will react. It's about being ready instead of reacting in panic.

You can practice the same strategies at the office. Constantly assess what those above, below and beside you are perceiving, what they expect and how they feel. Do this not just during crucial moments, but at every point of interaction. Do it well enough and it will be what sets you apart. It will become your magic, your own wow factor.

With these three magician's secrets, you can bring innovation and lateral thinking to your job. Wow your coworkers by anticipating what they're going to think or say at the next meeting, and astonish them with your masterful ability to connect and communicate with anyone you meet.

Source: Kostya Kimlat is a keynote speaker and corporate magician who fooled Penn & Teller on their hit TV show, Fool Us. Kimlat speaks to businesses about how to Think Like A Magician to improve sales and customer service.